The Primorye regional administration is in talks with developers over the construction of an expansive infrastructure for one of Russia's gambling zones near the Far East city of Vladivostok, the regional governor Sergei Darkin said on Thursday.
"The Nash Dom-Primorye state company which won the tender to run the gambling zone is currently holding talks on constructing hotels, casinos, trading centers and other facilities on the territory [of the gambling zone] with several investors," Darkin said.
The construction projects will be worth billions of dollars.
Four five-star, seven four-star and four three-star hotels, twelve villas, a yacht club, a multipurpose trade and entertainment center as well as many other tourist and recreation facilities will be built in the Primorye gambling zone.
The first hotels will be ready in 2012, he said.
The region's administration is ready to help with connecting the zone to local electricity and infrastructure systems, but there will be no state investment in the project.
Under a 2007 law, which came into force on July 1, 2009, casinos and other gaming establishments can operate only in four remote areas designated for gambling: in the Baltic exclave of Kaliningrad, south Siberia's Altai Territory, Primorye in the Far East, and in southern Russia near the Sea of Azov.
So far there is only one legal casino in Russia, the Oracul (Oracle), in the Azov City gambling zone. Other casinos are to open in the future in the southern gaming zone.
MOSCOW, July 29 (RIA Novosti)
